With such a lovely home for the week, most mornings were spent around the cottage. Playing in the garden, or in the conservatory and eating leisurely breakfasts of boiled eggs and toast. On the Saturday afternoon of the bank holiday weekend, we visited the nearby village of Broughton in Furness.

Broughton is one of those tiny villages that has everything. A garage, a deli that stocks everything you could possibly need, a butchers and 3 pubs. They also have a cafe on the square but it wasn’t open that day.

Driving through the market place, it was easy to see where everything was happening. Seemingly the whole village, and probably a few tourists too, were outside the Manor Arms pub drinking beer and eating hot dogs. We parked up further down the street and walked back to where it was all happening.

Bagging a table in the middle of it all, we bought some drinks from the pub and food from the hot food van. There was a fantastic atmosphere. Local bands played, mostly folky type music but all jolly, and kept everyone entertained. It was bustling! We hadn’t planned to join any of the Jubilee celebrations, not for any reason, we just hadn’t. This street party with such a good atmosphere though, was perfect.

After a couple of hours sat outside soaking up the sunshine and the festivities, we wandered around the village to explore. Most of the properties are very old, solid stone built cottages and terraces, with a beautiful church in the middle of village.

On another sunny street we sat outside the Black Cock Inn, one of three pubs in Broughton. We enjoyed coffees before walking back to the car and heading home to the cottage.

Sunday, we didn’t intend to go out other than to find some food. Late in the afternoon we hopped in the car (because everywhere on this holiday demands use of the car) and drove to the next village, Seathwaite. The Newfield Inn had been recommended in the notes in the cottage as a good place to get food, and dog friendly.

The drive was winding, with some parts of road very narrow and bordered by hedges and stone walls on each side, but eventually we arrived at Seathwaite.

Inside we were warmly welcomed by the staff and owner. They kept coming over to talk to little Miss and Thelma checking we were enjoying ourselves. We hadn’t really eaten a proper meal in the past two days. We’d either been travelling or grabbing snacks from vans, so were excited for a full on feast here.

For starters I had gorgeous creamy garlic mushrooms. They were amazing.

Then vegan chilli on jacket potato, which really packed a chilli kick. It was absolutely delicious and filled with veg.

Totally full, we weren’t going to have dessert, but then the dessert menu came out and I couldn’t resist. The salted caramel cheesecake was too tempting. I finished it, but was so uncomfortably full I probably wouldn’t need to eat for the rest of the week.

Before leaving, I noticed a ‘note’ from Dorothy Wordsworth from her visit to the Newfield inn back in the early 1800s. In it she commented on the warm welcome and good food. Looks like nothing has changed.